Commissioner Brill Introduces Competition Analysis to Privacy Debate

FTC Commissioner Julie Brill stated today that “there may be a tipping point” at which self-regulatory privacy initiatives “turn[] anticompetitive, particularly in cases where the mechanisms are developed by a trade association or industry players that have a dominant market position.” A self-regulatory privacy proposal could raise “competition concerns,” she said, if it “disadvantages competitors of the platform offering the proposal, especially if the platform operator has a dominant market share and is vertically integrated.” Proposals offered by a group of rivals or their trade association could raise competition concerns if the rivals “act in ways that favor their own economic interests to the detriment of other competitors and consumers.” In the recent Google Buzz settlement, FTC Commissioner Rosch raised similar concerns about whether seemingly pro-privacy moves could have anticompetitive effects. For more information on Commissioner Brill’s Analysis, please read Paul Bond’s and Chris Cwalina’s article on the Global Regulatory Enforcement Law Blog.